


Baby Mesa

by Sp_aceagecrystals



Category: HLVRAI - Fandom, Half-Life
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Gen, I don’t really but idk pal it’s up to u, Non-Chronological, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, They/Them Pronouns for Benrey (Half-Life), Xe/xir pronouns for bubby, just some Drabbles in random order, you can read this as ship stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:54:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27416833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sp_aceagecrystals/pseuds/Sp_aceagecrystals
Summary: The worst part of Black Mesa was that Tommy was the only kid. All the adults were nice, but he wanted to have friends! He wanted to hang out with someone not four times his age! So of course, when he was asked to meet with a “child subject,” he was utterly ecstatic.
Relationships: Benrey & Tommy Coolatta, Benrey/Tommy Coolatta, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 8
Kudos: 61





	1. First Contact

**Author's Note:**

> This first chapter is gonna be p short, mainly because I wanted to split it from the next chapter. Also, as you can probably guess from the end here, then Benrey will be called “Benny” for a lot of the childhood segments.

Living at Black Mesa wasn’t that bad, honestly. Sure, there wasn’t much for a twelve-year-old to do, but Tommy didn’t care. After all, they took great care of him! He had a cool room, and they taught him all kinds of science stuff! They never told him to go away or drink less soda or go to bed. The only things he had to do were some chores, but sweeping and wiping some shelves wasn’t exactly torture. 

Despite this, he wondered sometimes what other kids usually did. Since Tommy read a lot, he knew how he lived wasn’t “normal”. He didn’t even get to be homeschooled - apparently, he already had a college-level reading and math ability, so they didn’t know what to teach him. 

That was kind of why he was able to be here at all. He remembered being at the side of a road one day when he was ten and nothing else. The social workers tried to ask him all sorts of questions to figure out what happened to him, but he didn’t know any of the answers. The only things he knew was his name and age. Grown-ups told him he probably had amnesia. They would say something really bad happened to him, and so now he couldn’t remember anything. He wasn’t sure if he believed them, but he didn’t say that.

The worst part of Black Mesa was that Tommy was the only kid. All the adults were nice, but he wanted to have friends! He wanted to hang out with someone not four times his age! So of course, when he was asked to meet with a “child subject,” he was utterly ecstatic. 

“Hello Tommy! Fine day, isn’t it?” Dr. Coomer had a big smile, as usual. All of the Coomers were nice, but this one was his favorite. Tommy couldn’t really explain how he told them apart, but he could always find this one. “You’ve met Professor Bubby, yes?” 

“ _ Doctor _ .” The taller man beside him hissed. Had they met? Xir glasses managed to reflect so much light that they weren’t even transparent anymore, and xir teeth almost seemed… pointy. 

Regardless, the boy offered out a hand. “Hi Doctor Professor Bubby!” Even without seeing xir eyes, he could feel xir glare. 

If Coomer noticed, he didn’t react to it. “Well, you’ve got a big day ahead, my boy, so let’s be on our way!”

While they walked through the sterile halls, the scientists explained who he was meeting. Apparently, a child-like specimen was discovered within the facility a few nights ago. All attempts to communicate failed. When Tommy asked how old they were, they said they didn’t know. He asked what their name was, and they didn’t know that either. A bit frustrated, he asked the real deal-breaker:

“Do they like dogs?”

They came to a sturdy metal door with the words “EXTRATERRESTRIAL HOLDING FACILITY 006” spray painted on. Bubby was typing something into a keypad near the handle as Coomer turned back to Tommy.

“I do believe you’re about to find out! :)”

Something clinked, and it creaked open. With no hesitation, Tommy bounded in, and the door closed behind him.

The room was sort of like his, back when he first came here. Bare white walls and a spotless linoleum floor left after-images when he blinked. There was a small metal shelf and a wall-mounted bed. A lump of white sheets were the only things that even seemed like they could be moved. As the door slammed shut, the mass shuddered.

“Uh, hello? I’m Tommy, are you in here?” Maybe he was a little scared. A tiny bit. He stepped forward anyway, determined. 

It started to squirm and turn, until a small opening revealed an impossibly dark shadow. 

“Is that… you?”

They didn’t respond. Slowly, the sheets started being pried off, finally revealing his new friend. The hospital-style gown they wore almost reached their bare feet, and a thick mess of black hair surrounded their whole head, covering their face. A guard helmet that was clearly sized for an adult sat loosely on them. They looked like they were straight out of a horror movie Tommy snuck from the break room. 

Most kids would be scared. Most would run the other way and bang on the door. But Tommy wasn’t most kids, so he just took off his plastic Scooby-Doo backpack so he could pull out two Sega Game Gear™️s and a connector cable.

“Wanna play Super Space Invaders?”

They took the offered console gingerly and sat across from him. An hour later, the strange kid had a massive lead. They had been doing pretty bad at the start, but once they got it down they barely lost. Suddenly, the crackle of an unseen intercom interrupted their game. 

“Tommy, I’m afraid your time is up. The door will open in a few moments, so I suggest saying your goodbyes for now.”

Hearing Coomer was disorienting, because neither child had spoken more than a few words since they started playing. His friend hadn’t said anything, actually. Wait, that means…!

“Hey, you never told me your name!” They were still playing away on their Game Gear, showing no signs of hearing him.

“If you can’t remember, it’s ok! But I want to call you something, so if you-“

Tommy was cut off by a bizarre sound. Since their hair split at their nose, then he could barely make out their mouth. It opened, revealing a set of monstrous teeth, and emitted some sort of pure-tone melody. He was enveloped in a kind of emotional aura - it felt like home and waking up in your bed right before your alarm. Unfortunately, Tommy wasn’t sure how to pronounce that, so he just tried to think of it as phonetic syllables. 

“Buh- Bun- Ben? Benny? You want me to call you Benny?”

He chose to take their lack of a response as confirmation. Resolute, he stood up and gathered the cable back into his bag. 

“You can keep that, by the way! It seemed like you were having fun, so I’ll let you hold onto it.” Benny just stared - or, at least, it felt like they were staring, even though their eyes weren’t visible. Tommy ignored the awkwardness of the situation, and just waved at them as he walked through the opening door. “See you again soon, friend!”


	2. Now You See Me...! (12)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy isn’t entirely comfortable with leaving Benny during lunch breaks. Bubby isn’t at all comfortable with the idea of Benny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!! I’m going to start putting the approximate ages in the ch titles, so it’s easier to know about when these are in relation to each other.
> 
> No major warnings for this chapter, just a lot of teleporting and a mention of multiple eyes. Bubby also calls Benrey/Benny an “it” a few times, but stops by the end of the chapter.

He visited Benny again the next week, and the week after that. Eventually it was two days a week, then three, until the only days they were apart were Saturday and Sunday. The time spent had gone up too; now their meetings were almost seven hours, a lunch break for Tommy being the only interruption. He loved it, obviously. Benny didn’t talk, but they were really good at games and did that cool music thing sometimes. 

On this particular day, they were playing Super Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System™️. Tommy had a winning streak, but he was never too far ahead. As Benny broke that streak with a single well-timed speed boost, he huffed and flopped backwards. When he looked over, Benny was just facing the screen with the slightest hint of a smile on their lips. He wished he could just see their face. Sure, it probably wouldn’t help with reading them at all, but it was something he was used to with everyone else. 

“Hey Benny, can I see your face?”

They made a little hum noise, a bit of teal smoke slipping out. 

“You don’t have to let me see if you don’t want to! I just thought it’d be cool if- if I knew how you looked!”

Slowly, they shifted so they were facing Tommy. They scooted closer until they were only a few inches way, easily reachable. 

“Oh, so you want me to?”

They nodded. Seeing no reason to wait, he reached up and parted their thick hair with both hands. 

Admittedly, the glowing eyes may have been a bit surprising. And that there were more than two of them. And that they were all blinking separately. “W-woah! You look…,” he struggled momentarily to find a word that really captured their essence, “...cool!” 

The eyes were scattered haphazardly above their cheeks. Two large ones sat at the expected place, with smaller ones filling in the extra space. Even without the hair in the way, a deep shadow stayed on their face and made the yellow glow seem even brighter. Quietly, barely even above a whisper, Benny spoke for the first time since he had met them. Their voice was quiet and almost, well, “distorted” is probably the most accurate term? Though as weird as it would seem for the voice of someone right in front of you to have interference, static bled into the sound.

“...cool?”

“You spoke! :D! Could you talk this whole time?”

They stared for real now, thin pupils nervously darting between directions. 

“N-no problem! If you can’t really talk, it’s fine, I just think it’s neat! It’s a lot easier to know what you’re thinking about if you could tell me. Wait, let me just-,” he used one hand to raise the helmet so he could slip the other back with a handful of hair, “there! Now I don’t have to keep holding it away from you! But, like I was saying, it doesn’t really matter if you can speak! You’re still my friend either way, you know.” Tommy picked up his controller and smiled at them. “Wanna keep playing?”

As they got back to their heated competition, Tommy was increasingly aware that lunch was going to come soon. He loved lunch, sure, but lately he’d felt weird leaving his friend behind. Tommy was also pretty sure that when he left they just stared at the door until he got back, which was a tad bit concerning.

“Are you hungry?” He glanced over, but got no response. “I’m probably going to- uh- have to go soon, so you want to come with me to lunch?”

Their head snapped towards him so fast that he was a little worried that he might have broken something. When they spoke, they were so quiet that he could barely hear them and yet their words (or word?) was impossibly clear in his head.

“out?”

“Yeah! There’s a whole complex out, out there. Have you- have you never been out of this room?”

Their gaze slid down to the floor and a few tendrils of blue-black gas escaped their lips. It felt painful as Tommy breathed it in, like being ignored by someone you loved. 

He wasn’t typically the rebellious type. Tommy was polite, and followed rules, and loved his science home. But he loved his friend, and he couldn’t stand to see them so hurt, and so he was now sure he would find some way to get Benny out of this room.

And then, with perfect timing, a familiar voice came buzzed through the intercom. “Hello boys! I’m afraid it is time for Tommy’s lunch, so the door will open in a moment.” He looked back at Benny, trying to think of how to get them out. Not that he had to, apparently, because they just offered him a playful, toothy grin before lowering into the floor until all that was left was the blanket they had been sitting on. Well, that solves that. 

Seeing as there was nothing left for him to do here, so he just left when the door opened. Dr. Bubby met him outside, and he seemed… well, not angry, but a bit agitated. Admittedly, that wasn’t odd, but it still felt different than usual. The journey to the break room was silent. Maybe this wouldn’t be too hard, since Bubby was as disinterested in interaction he might not even notice if Benny was somewhere beyond their room! As always, the lounge was empty (which Tommy guessed was intentional) and he wandered over to the vending machine for his usual lunch: three full cans of soda and a single granola bar. Bubby, as expected, stood at the doorway and pulled out some kind of pager. 

Tommy punched one the buttons for his favorite drinks, but was startled when Benny leaned out of it. It took all his strength to not stumble back or shout. 

“How’d you-!” Tommy whisper-yelled as he watched his adult supervision nervously.

“no-clip. drink?” They stepped out fully, revealing that they had grabbed all of the contents of the machine and now carried the haul in their arms.

Since Bubby still seemed distracted, he guided his friend over to a couch in the corner that, if Bubby  _ did _ decide to look up, would be out of sight. The two started chugging soda and whispering, occasionally breaking into hushed laughter. They made it about ten minutes before sharp footsteps started to approach.  _ Oh no _ . Tommy stared at his friend, begging,  _ pleading _ for them to do that weird slide-into-the-wall thing or whatever so that xe wouldn’t see them. But they just sat there, looking toward the exit with seemingly no awareness of just how much trouble both of them were about to be in if they didn’t act fast. When Bubby finally rounded the corner, they just stared blankly. And then they smiled. It dripped with malice (both metaphorically and literally, as an off-white smoke escaped from between their teeth that smelled like distant shouting and spite), daring xir to just try and stop them.

The edges of xir mouth dropped ever so slightly as xe took in what was in front of xir. It took a moment of watching Bubby just stand there for Tommy to notice that another set of footsteps was still lagging behind. Coomer didn’t look mad when he arrived - more an expression of concern than anger. 

“I told you he was gonna do it.”

“Oh dear, this is quite the predicament. :( ”

Then Benny cackled. It was sharp and rough and almost sounded like radio static, so inhuman that Tommy’s brain could barely even connect it to them. When he blinked, his friend was gone. They didn’t run, they were just gone. Better late than never, he guessed. Coomer approached slowly before kneeling down to be at eye level with the boy. 

“Now Tommy, I know you and them are very close, but that still doesn’t mean you can let them leave their room without discussing it with us first.”

“But-!”

“It could have gone anywhere. Do you even know how much you fucked up? Do you need me to tell you all the ways this could have gone wrong?” Bubby wasn’t nice, or patient, or really anything like Coomer. Xe was kinda mean, actually.

“Please, professor, he-“

“For the last time, it’s ‘doctor’, and don’t act like this was some kind of harmless fun! That thing isn’t even human, it-“

The two men made eye contact for a long moment, some sort of non-verbal exchange happening between them that Tommy didn’t get to be a part of.

“Anyways,” xe continued, “we just have to hope now that it went back to its room. God knows we wouldn’t have a chance at catching it.”

“They’re not an it.” Tommy glared at xir. Okay, Benny had never  _ said _ what pronouns they used, but it still felt wrong to hear them called “it”. “Who cares if they’re not human! They’re my friend, and I don’t care what you think about them!” He pushed past them and stormed out, making sure to still carry a few of the unopened cans with him. Knowing there was no way he was being let back into Benny’s room anytime soon, he went straight to his own room. Playing games didn’t feel as fun alone, though, so he just ended up trying to fall asleep early. 

Tommy didn’t have any dreams before he was woken up by an odd rustling in his room. Usually, he was able to ignore stuff like that - it was probably just weird lab noises. But there were two problems in this case: Firstly, he had gone to bed early, so there was no way he’d be able to fall back asleep. Secondly, even if he was tired, it’d be pretty hard to explain away the wide, glowing eyes at the other end of his bed. Benrey showed no reaction as he scrambled out of bed.

“Wh- what are you doing in here!”

“friend?” Their head cocked to the side, and it was kinda cute. Reading them was still nearly impossible though. 

“Yeah, we’re- we’re friends. But I’m pretty sure we’re both in a ton of trouble!” Tommy had never been scared of Benny, but those glowing eyes and sharp teeth were a bit ominous. “Is- is something wrong?”

Their pitch-black pupils wavered over his face, before turning to the door. Tommy wasn’t able to see the trail of yellow and teal vapor settling in the air, but a creeping fear passed to him nonetheless. “Are you scared?” He lowered his voice so it was softer. It wasn’t that he minded having Benny here, he was just a little startled! Luckily, no one really patrolled this area at night. Well, no one but-

“Bubby!” Tommy hissed as he realized how much worse this could get. “Listen, you’ve gotta - you’ve gotta go back to your room! If Xe sees you here-!” He didn’t have to finish. The space at the foot of the bed was empty, and he felt similarly so. All comfort had left the room with them, leaving Tommy lost and alone.

* * *

Harold closed the door gently, not that it mattered. Bunny’s frantic pacing was loud enough that no one would have noticed a mere door. 

“Dear, is it really troubling you that much?”

“You mean you aren’t pissed? The subject-“

“Benny, I believe. At least that’s what Tommy calls them.”

Bubby only dignified the correction with a brief glare before continuing. “Whatever you want to call it, that thing’s dangerous. It can even teleport now! We’re basically doomed, so, actually, fine, no point in worrying, right?” Xe sneered at nothing in particular, apparently satisfied with xirself.

“Now, my dear Bubby, don’t take this the wrong way, but don’t you think you know better than anyone how Benny must feel?”

“No- no! Do not compare me to that alien!”

“I wasn’t-”

“Yes! Yes you were, Harold! I might have been raised in a tube, but I’m still infinitely more human than  _ that _ !”

Coomer waited. In fact, he waited so patiently that his whole tone reset, and he returned to his usual, pleasant register. “Oh my, can you imagine? It must be so hard, in such a small, sterile room, all alone! Can you imagine, Bubby, having all those tests done on them? How much it must hurt them to not be able to be a part of the world?”

Few beings could rival Bubby at being mad. Xir anger was constant, limitless, and required no source; the same as xir pyrokinetic fire, honestly. But the only person xe couldn’t be mad at was xir partner, so xe just sighed and let it go. Arguing wasn’t going to get them anywhere. Plus, if Tommy was this attached to the subject, then it-  _ they _ weren’t going away any time soon. 

“Ok, fine. I’ll try to be nicer to them. But don’t think I’m happy about it.” Coomer didn’t say anything, he just kissed xir cheek before wrapping xir in a hug. This would be a problem for tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Original Sweet voice meanings relevant to this chapter:  
> Blue to black means I don’t think they’ll like that  
> Off-white like a cloudy sky means I dare you to try  
> Teal and yellow paired means I’m scared!
> 
> I’m making a doc with rhymes/meanings, so I’ll include any I used at the ends of chapters.


End file.
